Category: Data Journalism

Over coffee with a colleague, you’re discussing what you did this past weekend. Chances are you’ll tell a story with a beginning, middle and an end, with detours and ups and downs thrown in for added drama. Now, think about your favorite ad, novel or movie. Does it follow the same arc? Using some of our favorite advertisements, we’ll explore the idea that stories do, in fact, have different and distinct “shapes.” The idea that every story has Read more…

On March 24, a smear campaign targeting Emma Gonzalez, a Parkland survivor and gun-control activist, began on fringe online platforms. Supported by high-profile individuals and social accounts, the campaign coincided with the March of Our Lives, singling out Gonzalez for her leading role in the march. The campaign featured doctored images and GIFs showing the young activist ripping up the constitution. The original images were taken from a recent photoshoot with Teen Vogue, in which Gonzalez and Read more…

by Rhona Tarrant, Eoin Corbett, Peadar Grogan In February 2018, after almost seven years of conflict in Syria, government forces launched an offensive against opposition-held areas to the east of the capital city, Damascus, an area known as East Ghouta. By March 21, just over a month after the offensive began, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported some 1,600 civilians had been killed and about 50,000 people displaced. The region was home to about Read more…

Originally published on On the Media When the Syrian government waged a bombing campaign against Aleppo in 2016, mainstream outlets paid attention. The story had a political hook and a seven-year-old girl’s pleas got the world’s attention on Twitter. In Raqqa last year, the US-backed campaign to take back the ISIS stronghold also produced gripping headlines. But for the past few weeks, the Syrian government has been attacking the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta without nearly as much news coverage. Read more…

On the day after the Parkland shooting, a fringe right-wing anti-Semitic group called the Republic of Florida (ROF) claimed Nikolas Cruz, the man accused of killing at least 17 people, had trained with them. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) first reported the alleged link after speaking with Jordan Jereb, the public face of the ROF, as did ABC News. The Associated Press published further reporting, saying, “Jereb said he didn’t know Cruz personally and that ‘he acted on his Read more…

It starts with a spark. Or, in the case of Delta and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle of Georgia, an offhanded response on Twitter. Social media crises are messy and complex, fraught with half-truths and conflicting narratives heard from seemingly random voices. More to the point, crises rarely flow sequentially. Instead, they jump like grease fires, and it’s impossible to predict which flame needs to be put out first. For Delta, crisis came 14 minutes after the Atlanta-based airline Read more…

Where does the traditional news media fit in a world in which social networks increasingly filter and edit what is viewed by the public? In this episode, we discuss how social networks are coming under increasing pressure to police the content on their platforms, specifically offensive videos involving violence and sexual abuse. We examine the ways in which Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are attempting to moderate what we can view on their platforms. Rachel Blundy, a journalist at Read more…

In an ever-changing media landscape, what can brands do to minimize their risks and manage their reputations online? In this episode of the Storyful podcast we discuss the challenges global brands face on social media, and the new ways brands are analyzing social data in real-time to manage their online reputations. Della Kilroy is joined by her Storyful colleagues Stefanie Baum, Senior Creative Content Strategist; Carley Yabroudy, Creative Production Manager; Dara Healy, Director of Intelligence; and Julien Goretti, Read more…

Super Bowl Sunday is just days away and football fans are preparing to cheer, jeer and drink beer. But before this year’s showdown between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, let’s take a look at the relationship between the big game and socially conscious advertising. With a stage so enormous, some brands choose to use their mega budgets to join in or take a stance on more socially conscious narratives v. the traditional male-skewed narratives Read more…

Mark Zuckerberg announced last week yet another change to the Facebook newsfeed. Following a contentious year that embroiled the platform in controversy, Facebook intends to give preferential treatment to news sites based on users’ feedback as to which providers are most trusted. From Zuckerberg’s post, “The hard question we’ve struggled with is how to decide what news sources are broadly trusted in a world with so much division. We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s Read more…